We haven’t abandoned the blog – this is just the end of the most hectic time of the summer. At Katie’s farm on Stoney Creek, the main source of income is selling tall bearded iris, mostly through a website. Iris are dug, cleaned, tagged, and prepared for shipping during a three week window when they’re dormant in the summer, and that’s just wrapping up now. This year, packages were shipped to 43 states and two Canadian provinces. Nerd that I am, whenever I travel I like to think about ‘my’ iris being all over the United States and Canada, and wonder where my customers live relative to whatever highway I’m on.
A quick recap of the gardens: we’re learning a lot, which is sort of a code for ‘we’ve made some mistakes, plus some things out of our hands went wrong’, but overall things are looking pretty good. Summer crops mostly come from Yeehaw Farm, since the Stoney Creek end of things is so tied up with the iris in late July and early August. Fall crops are going in as space become available in newly emptied iris beds.
Some things haven’t done as well as we’d hoped, which is the nature of farming. Groundhogs apparently love edamame even more than I do. The new puppy, Finian, is doing his best as predator control at Stoney Creek but at nine weeks still falls asleep on the job. The alternating heavy rains and dry spells have slowed down the fruit set on eggplants, but the plants themselves look great and we have high hopes for a good harvest. The Rainbow Chard and lemon balm are setting records for production. Green beans were slowed down in the heat but are starting to really pick up now. And we’re just about the best potato growers you could ask for.
You’ve had a few tomatoes, and most baskets from now until frost will contain more. If you’d like extra tomatoes, please let us know. We don’t want anyone to be overwhelmed. If you find that you’re not able to use your tomatoes, throw them in the freezer, whole, and use them later in soups and sauces. We do not make any tomato sauce at this frantically busy time of the year, but instead fill a freezer with tomatoes and make the sauce in the winter, when the extra heat in the kitchen is appreciated.
By the end of this week everyone will have received blackberries. In our first year, we don’t have enough production to cover everyone in one week, so those were staggered.
Next week is our mid-season hiatus – there will be no CSA delivery on Thursday 19 or Friday20. Judi’s children are showing their animals at the Perry County Fair, and they’ll be sleeping there to care for them. Katie’s heading to the family home in northern Ontario for a few days. We’ll resume deliveries the following week, and will continue right up until early November.